The Internet Protocol (IP) suite, also referred to as the TCP/IP protocol suite, is a group of communication protocols upon which computer networks run. The IP suite can be viewed as a set of layers, where each layer provides services to upper layers based on services received from lower layers. Specifically, the IP suite comprises an application layer, a transport layer, a network layer, a link layer, and a physical layer. As such, the transport layer responds to requests from the application layer, and issues requests to the network layer.
The Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) is one type of transport layer protocol defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It ensures reliable, in-sequence transport of messages with congestion control. One of the advantages of SCTP over other transport protocols is that SCTP is capable of transporting message streams, as opposed to byte streams. Another advantage of SCTP is that it provides multihoming support. Multihoming is a technique utilized to increase the reliability of a network connection, where at least one endpoint of the connection or association has more than one IP address.
The inventors hereof have recognized disadvantages inherent to SCTP and other multihoming protocols. For instance, when monitoring traffic in an IP network, correlating SCTP packets to their proper association (i.e., the combination of source and destination devices in communication over the network) can be very difficult after the initial setup of the association has already occurred. This is due to the fact that SCTP traffic related to an SCTP association may utilize multiple IP addresses over the life of the association.